In today’s news, we will look into the Mayflower Wind, which has a 1200 MW SouthCoast Project and has agreed to terms with two unions. In preparation for the Department of Defense Readiness Training Project, Iowa Airmen constructed a massive fabric structure. At Fort McCoy, the Burma Road development project has reached the 80 percent completion mark. New construction projects have begun on the various campuses of ASU. A more environmentally friendly concrete mixture is being developed for Amazon Web Services’ data centers in collaboration with a company that specializes in concrete. LISC Detroit and the City of Detroit’s Mayor Duggan celebrate the completion of the first affordable housing development funded by the Detroit Housing for Future Fund.
Mayflower Wind joins a union
Original Source: Mayflower Wind signs trade union pact
Mayflower Wind inked a memorandum of understanding with two unions for its 1200 MW SouthCoast Project.
The firm is constructing an offshore wind energy lease area off the coast of Massachusetts.
The MoU includes commitments to hire local and diverse people, pay prevailing salaries, and use apprentices.
Mayflower Wind’s 2400MW offshore wind lease area. The company plans to deliver 1200MW by the end of the decade to five of Massachusetts’ top public utilities.
SouthCoast will connect to the electric grid at Brayton Point in Somerset, MA, the region’s largest coal plant.
Mayflower Wind CEO Michael Brown said a talented, well-trained, unionized crew will help build SouthCoast safely. “We’re excited to work with the building trades to create green jobs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.”
NABTU president Sean McGarvey: “When industry and labor collaborate, working people benefit enormously.” We look forward to partnering with Mayflower Wind SouthCoast to establish a sustainable offshore wind sector.
Our alliance will strengthen New England’s economy and create thousands of middle-class clean energy jobs with high-skilled training programs for all employees.
Iowa Airmen erect fabric framework for DOD Readiness Training
Original Source: Iowa Airmen build huge fabric structure in preparation for DOD Readiness Training project
In just a few weeks, Iowa National Guard airmen built a massive tension fabric structure for an upcoming innovative readiness training mission at Woodbine High School.
The fabric structure will shelter U.S. military soldiers heading to Woodbine to help build IGNITE Pathways.
Woodbine School Superintendent Justin Wagner asked the DoD IRT program to help develop the new IGNITE and TFS buildings.
Wagner: “We’re really happy and grateful to have been awarded this and to have DOD troops help us build it.”
Wagner learned about IRT through his Air National Guard affiliation. Colonel Wagner is Vice Wing Commander of the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City.
Wagner says this is Iowa’s first IRT project. The publicly financed IRT programme combines military and civic training.
The initiative enables U.S. military troops to develop job-related skills while serving American communities.
Wagner claimed asking for IRT support took two years. The request procedure includes HVAC, electrical, plumbing, concrete work, etc.
Wagner said DOD experts who seek training can work on IRT projects.
The Iowa Guard men from the 185th ARW erected the privately donated TFS structure in Woodbine this fall. The civil engineers are familiar with the building project because the U.S. military uses it around the world.
Prefabricated TFS buildings can be swiftly assembled. The structure can be disassembled and relocated for military purposes.
IRT crews arriving in the western Iowa village, 30 miles north of Omaha, should have plenty of room in the large fabric facility.
When the nearby IGNITE building is finished, the school hopes to use TFS as an indoor athletic facility, said Wagner.
Woodbine Community School District hopes to host IRT members soon, with the IGNITE building project finished by 2023.
Fort McCoy’s Burma Road is 80% complete
Original Source: Burma Road construction project reaches 80 percent completion at Fort McCoy
North Post at Fort McCoy’s Burma Road development began in spring 2022 and has continued steadily. We’re 80% done.
Nathan Butts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Resident Office at Fort McCoy, which oversees the project, said the contract might be finished sooner.
Butts wrote in a Sept. 30 email that the contractor has moved equipment and will resume work on Oct. 3. “Omaha District Designers/Engineers authorized the contractor’s plan to fix erosion and continue roadwork. Continue erosion control work. “
Burma Road on the North Post leads to various affected areas in the range regions. During summer training, it’s a favorite convoy training place.
Butts said much work has been done to repair the road, ditches, and erosion-control measures along its steep hills, since the project began.
Butts said recent upgrades to the project include communications lines, property lines, and concrete culvert modifications.
In March, the project contract was $4,064,200. First, roadside trees were removed.
Such construction boosts local economies. Fort McCoy’s economic effect for FY 2021 was $1.93 billion, up from $1.479 billion in FY 2020.
In FY 2021, military buildings on post cost $39.4 million. Officials stated that FY 2022 should be similar.
The Fort McCoy Executive Summary, available at www.home.army.mil/mccoy and https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, reveals the installation improves training for service members.
Fort McCoy has seen exceptional facility upgrading, training area development and extension, enhanced training and customer support, and improved quality-of-life options. Fort McCoy is equipped to satisfy the Army’s 21st-century training needs with unmanned aerial vehicles, urban training facilities, live-fire ranges, and virtual-training environments.
Fort McCoy provides “full-scale support to its customers at each juncture of its training trifecta” (transient, institutional, and exercise). Transient training consumers stay for two weeks or less. Individuals and units gain and hone warrior skills through transient training. These barracks support them.
The 2022-23 Fort McCoy Guide provides more information about the installation.
Fort McCoy is a training center, mobilization force generation installation, and strategic support area. Fort McCoy’s major responsibility is to assist in the training and readiness of all branches and components of the U.S. military. Fort McCoy is ready to assist with contingency operations.
“Total Force Training Center” is Fort McCoy’s motto. Fort McCoy is Wisconsin’s only U.S. Army installation.
Since 1984, the base has supported and supplied training facilities for more than 100,000 military personnel from all services.
ASU begins new construction projects
Original Source: New Construction Projects Break Ground On ASU Campuses
Polytechnic and West will get new academic facilities, while Tempe and West will get new dorms.
ASU announced two new residential halls, one in Tempe and one on the West Campus, and two new academic buildings due to increased student enrolment.
The university has about 150 construction projects. Tom Lyons, executive director of ASU’s Capital Programs Management Group, said a new Tempe residential hall will house 830 Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts students by fall 2025.
The structure will be between Mill and South Myrtle and East 10th and 9th streets. Lyons said the seven-story, 257,000-square-foot building will have 28,000 square feet of dining, classroom, office, and communal facilities. Next spring, construction begins.
Cale Kazmierczak, a student studying industrial design, is delighted they’re building a new resident hall, even if it will be pricey. I would have been more focused if I had had a nicer dorm my first year. “
American Campus Communities, a developer, owner, and manager of student housing in the U.S., will provide $113.5 million for the new building, while the university will finance dining, academic, and office facilities, Lyons said.
Alex Kohnen, vice president of ASU Facilities Development and Management, said, “Programs grow and shrink here at ASU, enrollment seems to be constantly rising, and we are constantly trying to respond to those signals to make sure the space and built environment is compatible with the needs and desires of our researchers, faculty, and students.”
Lyons said a $52 million chilled water and power facility will be built near the new residential hall.
“With all the construction on that side of campus, we’ve outgrown the utility infrastructure.”
recently and over the next decade,” Lyons added.
Additions west campus
500 undergraduate bedrooms and space for student activities and events will be accessible by 2024, Kohnen and Lyons stated.
“Enrollment has increased, and there isn’t enough accommodation on the West campus,” Kohnen said.
The four-story, 134,000-square-foot facility will be on North 49th Way between North University Way and West Wood Drive, Lyons said.
American Campus Communities will invest $54 million in the new facility’s development and maintenance, Lyons stated in an Oct. 6 email.
A new academic building on the West campus will begin construction in March 2023 and be finished in spring 2025, Lyons said.
The $4 million project will contain 55,000 square feet of student gallery space, computer labs, drawing labs, faculty offices, and future development space.
Polytechnic Research Building
Lyons said the university is designing a new academic facility for the polytechnic campus by summer 2025.
There will be classrooms for students to actively participate in research, Kohnen said.
The Arizona Board of Regents approved the $175 million project, which will begin in 2023.
Kohnen said ASU Facilities Development and Management is also considering modest upgrades at the Polytechnic campus, such as drought-tolerant landscaping and extending the community garden.
Master Plan for UAV Tennis, Track, and Field
The Arizona Board of Regents was recently briefed on a $45 million project to relocate the university’s tennis and track and field teams.
Lyons said relocating will allow additional development in the Novus Innovation Corridor.
Bateman PSC Construction
Martin Wojciechowski, associate dean for facilities at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and associate professor at the School of Life Sciences, stated Bateman Physical Sciences D and E wings will be finished in Fall 2023.
Wojciechowski said Bateman’s research requires updated water, heating, cooling, and backup generators.
When constructed, the E wing will solely have scientific classroom labs, while the D wing’s research labs will be in the basement. Floors 1-3 will have new labs.
The Bateman D- and E-wing renovations will have an immediate, beneficial, and long-lasting impact on education, research, and outreach, a physics professor stated.
The rebuilt Bateman building will have additional open space, seating, and AV equipment.
“The idea is to improve the place overall so we can bring in more government dollars,” Wojciechowski added.
“We have around $1.5 billion in projects from conception to completion,” Kohnen remarked. “There’s always a lot going on at this school.”
Other building
The Omni Tempe Hotel began construction in June 2021 and will be finished in April 2023.
The $125 million hotel will contain a 30,000-square-foot meeting center and 330 guest rooms.
A $42 million, six-level parking tower will create 1,205 new parking spaces for the new Omni Tempe Hotel.
Wilson Hall, a 1956 residence hall, will be replaced by a $107 million academic complex. The new five-story structure will have classrooms, collaborative, instructional, and office space.
AWS is working with a concrete business to make its data centers more sustainable
Original Source: AWS is partnering with a concrete company to develop a more sustainable concrete mix for its data centers
American Rock Products and AWS are reducing the carbon footprint of Oregon data centers.
American Rock Products (ARP), a CRH Company, has worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop a new, more sustainable concrete mix that will cut the carbon footprint of new data centers and encourage broader innovation to make building materials more sustainable.
Our economy has relied on concrete’s affordability and resilience to create roads, bridges, and buildings for decades. According to MIT, it’s the second-most consumed material in the world, after water.
AWS has implemented various initiatives to reduce the carbon effect of the concrete used in our data centers, with the goal of accelerating the availability of lower-carbon concrete across industries. AWS’s design specifications for new U.S. data centers include low-carbon concrete with at least 20% less embodied carbon. We’re expanding this requirement globally.
AWS and American Rock Products
The AWS Construction and Procurement team found a paucity of sustainable concrete solutions in southeastern Washington along the Oregon border. Transporting concrete’s mass across large distances is inefficient.
AWS and ARP then spent a year collecting data on the concrete company’s supply chain, from mining to transporting.
ARP gathered and reviewed information on the environmental impact of their concrete life cycle, including raw material sourcing, manufacture, and shipping. The Pasco, Washington-based company engaged with life cycle assessment consultants to transform the data into Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), which quantify environmental implications during the concrete’s life cycle. This data helps pinpoint where the carbon hot spots are in the material so that the most carbon may be removed.
ARP’s vice president, Mike McBreen, praised the company’s partnership with AWS. Regular meetings with AWS procurement and engineering continue to explore possibilities to reduce carbon emissions in the concrete we supply for future data centers.
The ARP and AWS teams developed more sustainable concrete mixes for four new data centers in northern Oregon, reducing their carbon impact by 23%, or 600 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. ARP completed EPDs on all of its products, guaranteeing that commercial, residential, and municipal building projects have access to carbon emissions data. This quantitative data will guide mix selection and minimize embodied carbon in delivered concrete, promoting sustainable development in Boardman, Hermiston, Umatilla, and Tri-Cities, Washington.
Yash Issur, head of AWS portfolio procurement and risks, said, “We’re committed to establishing a sustainable business for our customers and the globe.” Working with American Rock Products on this project helps us fulfill our sustainability goal. We hope this effort will improve market knowledge of lower carbon concrete, offering new chances to build more sustainably.
The AWS data center procurement and construction team will work with the ARP team to lower the carbon effect of future data center concrete.
Net-zero carbon by 2040
CarbonCure injects recycled CO2 into concrete during manufacture to lower Amazon’s carbon footprint. Amazon is adding CarbonCure to the construction of HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, which is estimated to save 1,144 metric tons of carbon.
AWS is trying to accomplish Amazon’s company wide objective of net-zero emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. This was Amazon’s 2019 Climate Pledge promise. Today, 34 countries have signed The Climate Pledge. Signatories create $3.5 trillion in global yearly revenues and employ 8 million people across 53 industries.
Mayor Duggan and LISC Detroit commemorate the first Detroit Housing for Future Fund project
Original Source: Mayor Duggan, LISC Detroit celebrate 1st affordable housing project completed through Detroit Housing for Future Fund
Mayor Mike Duggan and Council President Mary Sheffield joined Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), developers, and the community to launch The Charlotte, the first project under the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund (DHFF), a LISC-managed private investment fund targeted at creating affordable housing in Detroit.
The Charlotte Detroit LLC developers, Tom Anderton and Adam Noel, borrowed $2.55 million from the DHFF to convert an abandoned 1923 apartment building into 28 affordable units. Charlotte’s rehabilitation included full unit rehabs, a new roof, windows, and HVAC. On-site laundry, huge indoor/outdoor common areas, and greenspace are provided.
The $3.19 million makeover of The Charlotte features 12 one-bedroom, 13 two-bedroom, and 3 studio apartments. All 28 apartments are affordable. Nine flats are capped at 60% AMI, while 19 cannot exceed 80% AMI. Anderton and Noel charge 55%-65%. A studio will cost $725-$940 (80% AMI is $1,254), a one-bedroom $900-1,075 (80% is $1,343), and a two-bedroom $1,250-1,400 (80% is $1,612).
Mayor Duggan thanked the developers and Detroit LISC for helping establish a community where all Detroiters have access to affordable housing, regardless of income. Charlotte renovated a decrepit, abandoned apartment building into quality, affordable apartments in Gateway Community.
Anderton and Noel have invested near Boston-Edison for six years. Their efforts have resulted in 150 affordable housing units, largely multi-family complexes, but also homes and duplexes.
Noel: “We’ve invested in Detroit to create safe, affordable housing for the working class.” Our pricing is fair and allows access to the beautiful locations of Boston-Edison, which continues to expand and thrive.
Since 2018, Detroit has helped preserve 6,127 affordable housing units, including 5,960 below 60% AMI. In that time, 864 additional affordable housing units have been constructed, with 525 below 60% AMI and 646 under development.
Detroit Housing for the Future Fund helps The DHFF debuts in 2020 with an initial capitalization of $48 million, anchored by a $15 million pledge from JPMorgan Chase and a $10 million guarantee from The Kresge Foundation. DHFF is managed by LISC Detroit and LISC Strategic Investments as part of the Affordable Housing Leverage Fund, a City of Detroit effort.
Camille Walker Banks, executive director of LISC Detroit, said investing in quality, safe, affordable housing is crucial for economic mobility in Detroit. Through the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund, we provide financing for equitable initiatives that help low- and moderate-income families thrive in areas like the Gateway Community.
Six other DHFF projects are under construction across the city, including 173 affordable flats. 30 homes at Le Chateau at Mound and 7 Mile roads in District 3 will be rehabilitated for existing and future occupants. All apartments are 40%-50% AMI. The Belnord in Midtown is finishing a $2.9 million restoration that will deliver 29 affordable units with rentals between 50% and 80% of AMI.
Julie Schneider, director of Housing & Revitalization, said providing Detroiters with decent, safe, affordable housing is a top priority. The Detroit Housing for the Future Fund combats inequality and housing insecurity. I’d like to thank LISC and the fund’s business donors for helping us improve Detroit.
Summary of today’s construction news
Overall , we discussed the Mayflower Wind, which inked an MOU with two trade unions for its 1200MW SouthCoast Project, and the MoU commits to hiring local, diverse workers, paying prevailing wages, and employing apprentices. Airmen from the Iowa National Guard built a tension fabric structure for a training operation at Woodbine High School. The construction of Burma Road at North Post at Fort McCoy started in the spring of 2022 and has been proceeding regularly ever since, now 80% completed. New construction projects are beginning at ASU. The institution is now working on over 150 different construction projects. American Rock Products (ARP), a CRH company, worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to produce a new, more sustainable concrete mix that will minimize the carbon footprint of new data centers. The Charlotte, the first Detroit Housing for the Future Fund project, was opened today by Mayor Mike Duggan and Council President Mary Sheffield (DHFF).
